Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to taste Fleming’s new menu additions at their L.A. Live location. Situation in the heart of downtown, Fleming’s doesn’t disappoint when it comes to high quality dishes at a reasonable price. Their new menu features smaller portions with a lighter fare. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar is known for their high quality steaks with a vast array of wine pairings and they pride themselves with their fine service and contemporary atmosphere. We started our culinary feast with LUMP CRAB LOUIS WRAPS-butter lettuce, avocado, bacon, egg, tomato, chives. This is the perfect light appetizer for sharing and a great way to start off a decadent meal. I am usually hesitant to order crab appetizers or crab cakes at restaurants because most places skimp on the crab and leave you with a lot of filler, but Fleming’s piles fresh lump crab meat into these lettuce cups with a slight drizzle of homemade 1000 Island Vinaigrette. Topped with crunchy bacon and buttery avocado, each bite was the perfect combination of flavor.

Our next dish was a new appetizer on the menu and can easily be one of my favorite ravioli dishes. This Roasted Mushroom Ravioli dish comes with three ravioli filled with roasted Portobello and shitake mushrooms, served with a porcini butter sauce. These ravioli’s were so meaty and juicy and full of flavor. The creamy sauce had hints of dried porcini mushrooms, shallots and peppercorns and complemented the raviolis nicely.

Also new to the menu: Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole, caught off the shores of Oregon, lightly seasoned, and then drizzled with a lemon butter sauceand served with delicious Lump Crab BeignetsThe fish was lightly pan-fried and not too oily, although I thought it could do without so much of the lemon butter sauce. Or perhaps let the guest drizzle the sauce on themselves? The heat from the jalapeno peppers on top of the fish gave it a nice and unexpected spicy kick. I didn’t care too much for the crab beignets and couldn’t really taste the crab. Unfortunately, this wasn’t my favorite dish, but it’s a nice option for those who don’t eat red meat.

Next came the main course: Peppercorn Steak served with “F17” steak sauce, a proprietary blend of 17 ingredients including molasses, honey, orange juice and chipotle peppers. The flavors of the F17 steak sauce are great together and really brings out the big flavors of the seared prime beef and peppercorn. Not only was this piece of meat melt in your mouth juicy and tender, the sauce truly complements the dish. I usually like my steak pretty bare without any additional sauces, but after tasting the F17 sauce, I found myself dipping everything in this sauce! I couldn’t stop saying how much I loved the sauce and the spiciness from the chipotle peppers. Fleming’s-can you please bottle this sauce? I can see myself dousing this sauce on everything imaginable. Seriously, you have to go to Fleming’s just to try this sauce, it’s just that good. Can you blame them? It has 17 different ingredients!

Rounding out the steak dish are two new sides: Savory Roasted Baby Carrots that are tossed with golden raisins and toasted California Mission almonds, and Sautéed French Green Beans featuring shitake mushrooms and porcini essence.The golden raisins brought out the natural sweetness from the carrots and tossed with almonds made the perfect side dish to complement the hearty steak. The side dishes are Fleming’s are also large enough to share, if you’re that generous.

The Salmon Nicoise Salad is another great option for a lighter entrée. The Salmon Nicoise Salad features a filet of Scottish salmon, truffled deviled eggs and fresh vegetables that are individually prepared and topped with a Kalamata olive aioli spread on a Rosemary crostini. This isn’t your classic nicoise salad, everything was deconstructed and beautifully construed on the plate. For those that don’t eat meat, this is a great seafood option that is both filling and delicious.

We finished the meal with two beautifully plated desserts: CRÈME BRÛLÉE-creamy tahitian vanilla bean custard served with fresh seasonal berriesThere is nothing more decadent than topping off an amazing meal off with your own little bowl of crème brûlée. This dessert is so simple and rich and the perfect treat to satisfy your sweet tooth. I love the caramelized sugar crust on top and slowly savoring each bite as it melts in my mouth.

Chocolate Lava Cake-Rich chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center, served with vanilla ice cream and chopped pistachios. You can’t get a much better dessert than a chocolate cake with melted chocolate on the inside. The warm hot molten center with a scoop of the cool vanilla ice cream was the perfect way to end this wonderful meal.

I was really impressed with all their new menu additions. Not only are they lighter in fare, but there was more variety for those that don’t eat red meat. You can easily order a couple appetizers and make it a meal. They also have a happy hour special everyday, including the weekends, 5 cocktails, 5 wines by the glass and 5 appetizers. $6 each, served at the bar until 7 PM. Some of the appetizers include: Tenderloin Carpaccio, Sweet Chili Calamari, Wicked Cajun BBQ Shrimp, Seared Ahi Tuna, Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail.
You can’t beat this deal and with a location right in the center of downtown L.A., it is the perfect spot to grab a casual lunch, stop by after work for appetizers and drinks or dress it up at night for a fancy dinner. For whatever occasion, Fleming’s offers a fine dining experience with exceptional food.